Job 40:6-9

The Lord’s Second Speech ¹ 

40:6 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:

40:7 “Get ready for a difficult task ²  like a man.

I will question you and you will inform me!

40:8 Would you indeed annul ³  my justice?

Would you declare me guilty so that you might be right?

40:9 Do you have an arm as powerful as God’s, ⁴ 

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

Job 40:13

40:13 Hide them in the dust ⁵  together,

imprison ⁶  them ⁷  in the grave. ⁸ 

[40:6]  ¹ sn The speech can be divided into three parts: the invitation to Job to assume the throne and rule the world (40:7-14), the description of Behemoth (40:15-24), and the description of Leviathan (41:1-34).

[40:7]  ² tn See note on “task” in 38:3.

[40:8]  ³ tn The verb פָּרַר (parar) means “to annul; to break; to frustrate.” It was one thing for Job to claim his own integrity, but it was another matter altogether to nullify God’s righteousness in the process.

[40:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “do you have an arm like God?” The words “as powerful as” have been supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.

[40:13]  ⁵ tn The word “dust” can mean “ground” here, or more likely, “grave.”

[40:13]  ⁶ tn The verb חָבַשׁ (khavash) means “to bind.” In Arabic the word means “to bind” in the sense of “to imprison,” and that fits here.

[40:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “their faces.”

[40:13]  ⁸ tn The word is “secret place,” the place where he is to hide them, i.e., the grave. The text uses the word “secret place” as a metonymy for the grave.